5 Questions That Job Interviewers Shouldn’t Ask

We know to expect certain questions. Most interviewers will ask you straightforward questions about your background and job experience, questions about your behavior in specific circumstances in the past, situational questions that will test how you would react to a situation, and possibly questions or skill tests that are designed to show what you know and can do.

However, in addition to these four types of questions, you also might face certain oddball queries that are unique to a particular employer or interviewer. What you shouldn’t hear asked includes a long list of questions that are off-limits to interviewers. Some questions are illegal, and others are just inappropriate and probably shouldn’t be asked. Unfortunately, it will be your job if you are being interviewed to determine which questions are unacceptable. What you choose to do from there is up to you.

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1. Questions about children

An employer usually can’t make a hiring decision based on whether a candidate has children, and interviewers shouldn’t ask about your children at all (although, depending on how they do it, the question itself might not be illegal). Unfortunately, this is the type of question that some interviewers will work in as if it were just a conversational question and not an interview question. Some employers may make comments about children in general and wait to see if you respond.

This is a tricky way that interviewers can find out if you have children who might possibly distract you from your work without actually asking. If you are concerned that an employer is using this tactic, try to bring the conversation back to the job itself. As proud of your kids as you might be, the interviewer might not have innocent intentions when directing the conversation toward children.